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(More customer reviews)If you love Family Guy AND Clue, you will might enjoy this game. Otherwise, you will likely be as disappointed as I was, despite enjoying both.
This Fall, Family Guy will premiere with an hour-long episode centered around a Clue-style murder investigation. So I figure somebody over at the Fox TV marketing department wondered allowed, how great a gimmick it would be if there were actually a Family Guy Clue game. A little Googling later and they surely discovered USAopoly's custom games link, which for a mere minimum of 5,000 copies, anyone can produce a custom board game. This also explains the outrageous retail price - double that of the standard Hasbro editions.
Unfortunately, very little effort has been put into this Clue edition, which plays using the same rules as the new reinvention game: Discover The Secrets. Family Guy fans may at first enjoy the familiarity of their favorite TV show licensed onto yet another product, but any elation will quickly fade as one realizes this game is a one-trick pony, a promotional "baseball cap" you have to pay for! For Clue fans, there is absolutely nothing here for you if you're not a fan of Family Guy. The cards are cheap and flimsy, the weapons tokens lack heft and variety, and the player mover tokens are just colored plastic sleeves into which a cardboard character drawing is inserted. The theme and artwork is well integrated, but overall lacks the complexity of even the latest standard edition, combined with many of the reinventions' incongruous stylistic themes.
While the artwork is pleasant enough, the characters suffer from a single drawing of each, which is overused throughout the game. Aside from the 6 main characters, only Joe turns up during gameplay. No sign of Ernie the Giant Chicken or Death depicted on the box cover, nor anyone else you've come to love in Quahog, despite ample opportunities to include them. Each room of the Griffin's house is well represented, but with 4 bedrooms, they get a little redundant. They are also sparse and lack any variety. At most each room contains a single reference to something memorable from Family Guy. 9 rooms, 9 memories. Not bad for $40. That's not fair ... there are also 9 weapons which recall fond memories of favorite episodes. So 18 memories for $40. That's less than $2.25 a laugh. But the lack of creativity doesn't stop there ... this game contains a set of "Intrigue" cards which basically direct players to do certain things (like Chance and Community Chest cards in Monopoly). In USAopoly's other TV-inspired editions like "The Office" and "Seinfeld", these cards have witty quotations to inspire the instruction, which fans of these shows would appreciate (and bringing down the price per laugh in the process). No such luck with Family Guy. Just the plain old boring directions you could get int a regular game of Clue - without the overused Family Guy artwork however.
While I think this game is mostly well done, it feels like little more than a cheap marketing effort. My overall impression is that this game is incomplete, as if the designers could not meet the deadline. Family Guy has such a rich palette from which to draw, I can't help but feel cheated that this is all I got for my $40. I'm certain I won't be the only Family Guy fan who will feel let down by this game. Of course if you enjoy playing Clue, then the game plays normally and fans get the added thrill of role playing one of their favorite characters, but that's about it. If Seth MacFarlane had ANYTHING to do with this game, I will really feel insulted at this lack of respect for the fans. I prefer to think of it as the work of a nameless marketing executive at Fox who knows little more about it than the Family Guy airs on his network.
FInally I can't help but bring up the persistent comparison with the Simpsons, which in this case, the criticism is well deserved. Both editions of the Simpsons Clue game, produced directly by Hasbro, are not only beautifully drawn, with painstaking attention to detail, but contain enough variety and in-jokes incorporated into the artwork to keep an avid fan busy for hours, not to mention the custom figurines which serve as player tokens and the wide variety of beautifully crafted pewter weapons tokens. The Simpsons Clue editions show a loving reverence for their fans, and almost seems to be attempting to give back something in those games. This Family Guy edition seems merely to be out to take your money, oh and cross-promote the 9th season's premiere.
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6 Suspects, 9 Weapons, 9 Rooms?One Dead Chicken! One stormy night in Quahog, Rhode Island, the Griffin Family hosts a dinner party to make amends with invited guest, Ernie, the Giant Chicken.The dinner party gets out of hand and the feud between Peter and the Giant Chicken ends in "Fowl" Play.... WHO killed the Giant Chicken?WHAT Family Guy weapon was used? WHERE in the Griffin's house did it occur?Was it Brian, the sharp-witted mutt with his leash;Stewie, the megalomaniacal 1-year old with his baby bottle nunchucks or Peter, the brash, obnoxious and boisterous patriarch with the pirate sword?They all look guilty, but which suspect actually killed the Giant Chicken?Includes 9 custom pewter weapons.3-6 PlayersAges 9 to Adult
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